The floral fabric challenge

I was lucky enough to be contacted by Rhonda Buss recently (of Rhonda's Creative Life), to take part in a little sewing challenge. The guidelines were pretty simple. Ten participants were each sent the same panel of fabric to make an item of clothing. Of course I was going to say yes. I love a good challenge.

 

I'm not usually big on florals, so it was quite fun to come up with a style and design that would showcase the fabric, and yet still be true to my own personal sense of style. The fabric itself was a very drapey, textured barkcloth. It has a similar hand to rayon or some woven viscose blends. It was only a small panel, so I ended up using all of it, and in fact, drafted the side triangular panels of this dress specifically to accomodate it's short length.

In sketching out some of my initial design ideas for this dress, I realised that I was going to have to stabilise the drapey, challenge fabric in order to sucessfully make the kind of dress that I had in mind. This was easy to do though. I fused ProWoven Shirt-Crisp interfacing to my drapey, floral fabric, and voíla, it turned into a lovely crisp textile with a more structured hand, and an almost identical drape to the weighty Theory cotton sateen that I was using for the rest of the dress. It also dealt with the fact that I had to cut the fabric on an obscure bias in order to place the flowers in the position that I wanted.

The design is my own. I used my drop-waist dress pattern and modified it. My main changes were to add the side panels and change the shape of the side seams. I graduated the hemline and added a slightly flared flounce with a silk organza panel in between. I also added inseam pockets because every dress needs pockets. 

All good dresses also need a *twirl* photo. I definitely think twirling shows off the shape of the dress better. I might twirl instead of walk when I wear it.

 

 

Because the main white fabric is such thick cotton, and because of the design, I didn't want to line the dress. I drafted an all-in-one neckline and armscye facing and understitched for a clean finish. The back is fastened with a hand-worked silk loop and a beautiful glass button. I love glass buttons. I feel like they add a special touch.

I really love how this dress turned out. I've been dreaming of a dress design like this for a while now, but had been putting off doing anything about it because it's just so seasonally inappropriate. I love that this challenge enabled me to make something that I've been wanting to create anyway.

It's been a long post so if you are still with me, awesome! Please don't forget to head over to Rhonda's Creative life because there will be voting soon. You will also be able to check out the other fabulous entries there.